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 of Sakkara begins with the sixth king of the 1st Dynasty, a fact which may throw some doubt on the supposed foundation of Memphis by Menes. Until recently he was looked upon as semi-mythical, but the discovery of the tombs of many kings of the 1st Dynasty including probably that of Menes himself, as well as an abundance of remains of still earlier ages in Egypt has given him a personality. He was probably ruler of Upper Egypt and conquered the separate kingdom of Lower Egypt.

See ; K. Sethe, “Menes und die Grundung von Memphis,” in his Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Alterthumskunde Aegyptens, iii. 121.

MENGS, ANTONY RAPHAEL (1728–1779), German painter, was born in 1728 at Aussig in Bohemia, but his father, Ismael Mengs, a Danish painter, established himself finally at Dresden, whence in 1741 he took his son to Rome. The appointment of Mengs in 1749 as first painter to the elector of Saxony did not prevent his spending much time in Rome, where he had married in 1748, and abjured the Protestant faith, and where he became in 1754 director of the Vatican school of painting, nor did this hinder him on two occasions from obeying the call of Charles III. of Spain to Madrid. There Mengs produced some of his best work, and specially the ceiling of the banqueting-hall, the subject of which was the Triumph of Trajan and the Temple of Glory. After the completion of this work in 1777, Mengs returned to Rome, and there he died, two years later, in poor circumstances, leaving twenty children, seven of whom were pensioned by the king of Spain. Besides numerous paintings in the Madrid gallery, the Ascension at Dresden, Perseus and Andromeda at St Petersburg, and the ceiling of the Villa Albani must be mentioned among his chief works. In England, the duke of Northumberland possesses a Holy Family, and the colleges of All Souls and Magdalen, at Oxford, have altar-pieces by his hand. In his writings, in Spanish, Italian and German, Mengs has put forth his eclectic theory of art, which treats of perfection as attainable by a well-schemed combination of diverse excellences—Greek design, with the expression of Raphael, the chiaroscuro of Correggio, and the colour of Titian. His intimacy with Winckelmann—who constantly wrote at his dictation—has enhanced his historical importance, for he formed no scholars, and the critic must now concur in Goethe’s judgment of Mengs in Winckelmann und sein Jahrhundert; he must deplore that so much learning should have been allied to a total want of initiative and poverty of invention, and embodied with a strained and artificial mannerism.

MENGTSZE, a city in the S.E. of the province of Yunnan, China. Pop. about 12,000. It was selected by the French convention of 1886 as the seat of the overland trade between Tongking and Yunnan, and opened two years later. It is beautifully situated in the centre of a valley basin on a plateau 3500 ft. above sea-level. The country round is fertile and well cultivated, and the place must have been one of considerable wealth before the T’aip’ing rebellion, as the ruins of many fine temples attest. A considerable overland trade has sprung up since the opening of Mengtsze. Of the import trade (Hong-Kong supplied 86%, and of the export trade 70%, Cochin-China, Tongking and Annam claiming the remainder. Tin (68%) and opium (27·8%) are the principal exports, and textiles (71%), mostly cottons, and tobacco (4%) are the chief imports. On the Tongking side this trade follows the Red River route as far as Manhao, which is distant from Mengtsze about 40 m., though the navigation of the river is difficult. From Manhao the transit is by coolies or pack animals. Concessions have been obtained by the French government to build a line of railway from the Tongking frontier at the town of Laokay via Mengtsze to Yunnan-fu. The climate is equable and healthy.

MENHADEN, economically one of the most important fishes of the United States, known by a great number of local names, “menhaden” and “mossbunker” being those most generally in use. The Indians and white settlers used it as a manure, and the name is Narragansett for “fertilizer.” Its scientific name is Clupea (or Alosa) menhaden and Brevoortia tyrannus. It is allied to the European species of shad and pilchard, and, like the latter, approaches the coast in immense shoals, which are found throughout the year in some part of the littoral waters between Maine and Florida, the northern shoals retiring into deeper water or to more southern latitudes with the approach of cold weather. The average size of the menhaden is about 12 in. It is too bony and oily for a table-fish, but is used as bait for cod and mackerel. A large fleet is engaged in the fishery; and a great number of factories extract the oil for tanning and currying, and for adulterating other more expensive oils, and manufacture the refuse into a valuable guano.

MENIAL, that which belongs to household or domestic service, hence, particularly, a domestic servant. The idea of such service being derogatory has made the term one of contempt. The word is derived from an obsolete meinie or meyney, the company of household servants or retainers; a Scottish form is menzie. The origin is to be found in the O.Fr. mesnie, popular Lat. mansionata, from mansio, mansion, from which comes Fr. maison, house.

MÉNIER, EMILE JUSTIN (1826–1881), French manufacturer and politician, was born at Paris in 1826. In 1853, on the death of his father, Antoine Brutus Ménier, he became proprietor of a large drug factory, founded in 1815 by the latter at Saint Denis, Paris, and in 1825 at Noisiel-sur-Marne. Antoine Brutus Ménier had also manufactured chocolate in a small way, but Emile Justin from the first devoted himself specially to chocolate. He purchased cocoa-growing estates in Nicaragua and beet-fields in France, erected a sugar-mill, and equipped himself in other ways for the production of chocolate on a large scale. In 1864 he sold his interest in the drug-manufacturing business, and thenceforth confined himself to chocolate, building up an immense trade. Ménier was a keen politician, and from 1876 till his death had a seat in the French Chamber, his general views being strongly Republican, while he consistently opposed protection. He was the author of several works on fiscal and economic questions, notably L’Impôt sur le capital (1872), La Réforme fiscale (1872), Économie rurale (1875), L’Avenir économique (1875–1878), Atlas de la production de la richesse (1878). He died at Noisiel-sur-Marne in 1881, his sons succeeding to the business.

MÉNIÈRES DISEASE, a form of auditory vertigo, first described by a French physician, Emile Antoine Ménière, in 1861. It usually attacks persons of middle age whose hearing has been previously normal. A. Politzer gives the following as the principal causes: intense heat and exposure to the sun, rheumatism, influenza, venereal diseases, anaemia and leukaemia. The disease presents itself in various forms, but the most usual is the apoplectoform, due to haemorrhage into the labyrinth, followed by more or less complete deafness in either or both ears. The attack usually sets in with dizziness, noises in the ears, nausea, vomiting and staggering gait, and the patient may suddenly fall down with loss of consciousness. The seizures are usually paroxysmal, occurring at irregular intervals of days or weeks. Between the attacks the equilibrium may be disturbed, there being marked nystagmus and unsteadiness of gait. The attacks of vertigo tend to become less frequent and may entirely pass away, but the deafness may remain permanent; The treatment is directed towards relieving the troublesome head symptoms by the application of cold compresses. The drug that has proved most serviceable in diminishing the dizziness is potassium iodide, administered daily for at least a month. Politzer considers that the attacks may be averted by producing rarefaction of the air in the external meatus of the ear by means of a specially devised aspirating tube.

MENIN (Flemish Meenen), a town of Belgium in the province of West Flanders situated on the Lys 7 m. S. of Courtrai. Pop. (1904), 19,377. It manufactures linen and flannel, and in the neighbourhood are extensive tobacco plantations. It was first